When I was on my vicarage (internship) at First Lutheran in Gainesville, FL, I noticed something that had been produced by my predecessor, Vicar Matt. Matt made a magnet with the University of Florida football schedule on it, which he then used to hand out at tabling events. Now, some 15 years later, I just received the 2021 FSU Football Schedule magnets that I ordered as a direct plagiarism of his idea.
I stole Vicar Matt’s idea because it was a good one. The idea behind the football magnet is that unlike other things that University Lutheran could hand out, the football magnet is likely to stick around for the Fall Semester. I’ve had people tell me that they have found our football magnet stuck to metal signs on campus, dorm room refrigerators, and even on or near a keg. I hope that when people see that magnet, they are reminded that if they want to engage with a “Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace,” they know where to go.
But I don’t just hope that for our magnets. Magnets are great, but people are better. Like magnets, we hang around in some of the same places – campus, dorm rooms, maybe even keg parties. As we hang around those places, we are signs of God’s grace at work in us. We are marked with the indelible mark of Jesus and His open invitation to experience life in Him.
Imagine yourself for a moment as a human magnet. What are you stuck to? Who is interested in reading you? How clearly do you present that you are marked by Christ and a member of His community? The great thing about being a magnet is that you just have to give witness to what is stamped on you. What is stamped on you is simply that you are a Baptized child of God, loved because you are loved, and giving a winsome message for the world. Now that you have been stamped, your job is to hang around and give witness to that good news that you bear for the Fall Semester and beyond.